Walking Waterhoods: Temescal Creek Park to Horton Preview

At the entryway of B3 Lofts is a monument to Temescal Creek and the building's earlier history as Remar Bakery. The building was built in 1919 and operated as a bakery until 1988. The monument was created in 2013 during the final development phase of the Bakery Lofts and features historic images from the neighborhood. If you stand close to the monument’s grate, you can hear Temescal Creek rushing underneath. It's a curiosity that the bakery once produced trading cards for the Oakland baseball team.

This seemingly random patch of green is actually an important piece of modern water infrastructure. As storm water flows through the streets toward the San Francisco Bay collecting trash and chemicals, the water gets filtered through this patch in order to clean it. This "bulb out" is filled with native plants such as the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) and Elegant Clarkia (Clarkia unguiculata) that filter stormwater runoff draining from hardscapes along Adeline, removing pollutants through the soil biota and roots, and providing slower drainage before entering into storm drains that lead directly to the Bay. Reducing and treating stormwater onsite is a vital approach to water treatment that is not yet well-enough adopted in the County of Alameda, other than the City of Emeryville.

Purple sage, (Salvia leucophylla) is an endemic low-growing plant native to Southern California and Baja California, Mexico. Highly aromatic, this plant draws in a wide variety of pollinators. Stand here for a view minutes to see what insects come by.

Were there really coho and sockeye salmon in Temescal Creek? Yes, salmon ran up the year-round larger creeks of Temescal, Sausal, Strawberry, and Codornices Creek. With each of these creeks completely or partially culverted (put in pipes), natural creek beds that would allow for the passage of fish as well as areas appropriate for egg laying are long gone. Dirty stormwater, often containing fish-killing chloramine, now drives water down the creek, making it functionally inhospitable for aquatic life. Also long gone are the grizzly bears that hunted for salmon here and fertilized large swatches of land with their salmon-filled poop.

The park itself was restored in 2013 and is placed directly over Temescal Creek which now runs underneath it.

The California bumblebee (Bombus californicus) is a classic bumblebee with big fuzzy bodies that feature yellow and black patterns. These bumblebees make their nests in the ground and emerge from April to September. These California natives are excellent pollinators and focus their efforts on California poppies, sage, and red clover, though they also pollinate many other types of plants. Bombus californicus is, unfortunately, a vulnerable species that has seen a population decline due to climate change, pesticide use, and habitat destruction.

You'll find blue-eyed darners (Aeshna multicolor) near many bodies of water, including Temescal Creek. They boast bright blue eyes and abdomens (what many people would call their tails). These dragonflies are some of the first to appear in the spring. They eat other insects living near the water.

Formosan firethorn (Pyracantha koidzumii) thrives in most climates but prefers drier climates in soil with good drainage. Originating in Taiwan, this plant moved across the globe and is now considered an invasive species within the United States. It is known to have a vigorous growth rate through natural seed drop (which is when birds eat them and then translocate the seeds after digestion). This plant has a history of being used in several different ways for landscaping, such as an informal hedge, background plant, or ground cover.

Eucalyptus, also known as Eucalyptus globulus subsp. bicostat, are trees native to southeastern Australia and are considered invasive in California. These tall trees are identifiable by their peeling bark along the trunk, fragrant, minty-smelling leaves, and their seed pods with marks in the shape of an "X" that are found scattered beneath the trees.

No matter what time of year you are walking through the park, you can hear the flow of the year-round Temescal Creek. Large grates were installed by Alameda County Flood Control for access to the buried creek. Stand here for a moment and listen to the soothing flow of the creek. Imagine if it were still running on the surface where it belongs!

Chayote, pronounced Chai-ow-tei, is a vine native to Mexico. Originally cultivated by the Aztecs, Chayote, or Sechium edule, was spread through conquest. Within the U.S., you can typically find this plant hanging along residencial fences or off arbors for decoration in restaurants in warmer regions like California, Florida, and the Gulf Coast. Identifying Chayote is fairly easy to do once you know to look for the fruit, which looks like long, green, and bumpy pears. This fruit is also edible and can be made into several different recipes. Its crisp texture has been compared to that of a potato, apple, or cucumber and can be eaten raw in salsas or salads or cooked and prepared like a squash or root vegetable to be served roasted or in stews.

Located at 1042 48th Street, just below Temescal Creek Park, this community garden sits above a culverted portion of the creek. This garden is an example of community use of a parcel that has an easement on it. This easement allows access to the property for the Alameda County Flood Control District if they need it and usually prohibits building structures on the parcel.

Emeryville was once known as "the rottenest city on the Pacific Coast." Incorporated in 1896, the city was formed to prevent the anti-gambling and anti-prostitution fever in Oakland, which was rapidly absorbing areas of Alameda County. After Prohibition ended bars and Shellmound Park 1920, and the State of California banned horse racing in 1915, the city was forced to switch its focus and its extensive rail yard and big open land became very desirable for factories and canneries to move in. The legacy from that area was toxic waste and a Superfund clean up site. More recently, Emeryville has reinvented itself with eco-friendly infrastructure and has become the home offices of Pixar, Chiron, Siebel Systems, and IKEA, which have a tremendous influence in the city.

For over a thousand years, the San Francisco Bay Area was home to many triblets of natives we know as the Ohlone. However, the Spanish expanded into this part of California in the late 1700s and brought missions to convert the Indigenous peoples to Christianity and force them to use "modern methods" of agriculture and living. This particular land was granted to Luis Peralta for his military service in 1820, and though he never lived on the ranch, he moved his children here to manage the land. A few decades later, with "manifest destiny" the driving ambition for the young United States to occupy the entirety of the continent, and gold being discovered in California in 1849, the white English speakers soon drove out the Spanish. Several interlopers occupied the Peralta's land, squatting for years and keeping the Peraltas tied up in the newly imposed U.S. court system. These men, Edson Adams, Horace Carpentier, and Andrew Moon, went on to found the City of Oakland, and eventually paid some amount of money to the Peraltas to acquire the land.

The Flood of 1962, aka, the Columbus Day Flood, had a huge impact on the creeks throughout the San Francisco East Bay, managed by Alameda County Flood Control District. What is most important to know is that the bulk of the land in the East Bay is actually "flood plains" for the many creeks that ran here. So when floods hit, naturally the waters moved into the creeks' flood plains, now occupied by homes and businesses, streets and forms of transportation. When a series of storms caused flooding in 1962, Alameda County Flood Control determined to bury the bulk of these water bodies below ground in culverts. This led to greater ecological degradation and a wholesale shift in the ecology and experience of living int the East Bay, including Temescal Creek where you are now standing. This lot is a pathway to the area of land behind these homes for Flood Control to have access to the buried creek.

There have been several efforts to bring the creek back to the surface of our minds through memorializing art. Before the high school was rebuilt here in the early 21st century, there were creek markers in the sidewalk like this one.

In 2005, the City of Emeryville became a leader in municipal stormwater management, designing storm water capture and cleaning infrastructure like you saw in the bulb out earlier in the tour. When Emeryville High School was modernized, the city installed several areas for storm water to run into dirt and plants before it travels to the San Francisco Bay.

If you were taking a walk down Temescal Creek in the late 1800s, you'd be standing in a beautiful willow thicket as the creek made its way to the Bay. Some of that thicket endured, but most of the creek was culverted (buried) in 1871 to build the Oakland Trotting Park. The art over the entrance to the parking lot is built directly over a piece of the race track and displays all the kinds of racing that took place at the park. The car and airplane races took place between 1915-1919 after horse racing became illegal in the state. The park was closed in 1919 and this area became an industrial park.

Hollis Green Park is situated along Temescal Creek's underground path and features a stage area and space for large gatherings. This pleasant park is built on land owned and maintained by Novartis, a medical corporation, making it an excellent example of a public space built in partnership with a private company. Visitors to the park can picnic on grassy knolls, enjoy a book on a bench, or sit in the shade of a coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens).